Courtwarming week was all fun and games as students participated in the 2019 Courtwarming events, during the week of Feb. 4, which were based around popular board games. However, the planning wasn’t all Chutes and Ladders as countless things were necessary for the week to go off as well as it did.

“There are a lot of little parts of the puzzle that fit together for Courtwarming week,” student council sponsor and social studies teacher Nathan Copling said.

Supplies needed to be ordered ahead of time for, not only the games played during assembly, but also for the royalty candidates and the Courtwarming dance. Prior to the dance, there were four days filled with creative spirit week themes.

“My favorite [day] would have to be Candyland because I actually enjoy dressing up weird because I love being weird; that’s the personality that I was born with,” freshman Ashley Terry said.

“My favorite Spirit Day was Color War [Battleship] Day,” junior Parker Love said, “it’s always my favorite day of spirit weeks because it adds a different element of the war between classes.”

The war between classes was won by the senior class, announced at the Courtwarming assembly once all of the Spirit Points from throughout the week had been added up. Juniors came in second, followed by sophomores and lastly by the freshmen class.

During half time of the boys’ basketball game against the Butler Bears, the lights were dimmed and student council lit the way for the 2019 Courtwarming royalty candidates as they made their way to the gymnasium stage for coronation.

King candidates were seniors Maleek Porter, Riley Bagley and Logan Davis, and their queen counterparts were seniors Kamryn Yach, Jordan Plybon, and Taylor Bunch.

“It felt really awesome to be a candidate because, ever since my brother got chosen his junior year to be a prince, it became a dream of mine to be a Courtwarming candidate because my brother was one and he is someone I will always look up to,” Plybon said. “It also meant a lot to me because Courtwarming revolves around basketball and, as a player, I just felt good to be a Candidate for something that involved [a sport that] I love.”

“I was kind of excited, but I was mostly surprised [to be a candidate],” junior Andrea Merritt said.

Merritt was chosen as a Courtwarming princess candidate, along with juniors Aubrie McRoberts and Rayni Simons, the prince candidates included juniors Riley Jelinek, Aiden Comer, and Josh Simpson.

From the twelve candidates running, only four could be chosen. Seniors Logan Davis and Taylor Bunch were voted the 2019 Courtwarming king and queen.

“I didn’t know if I would win or not,” Bunch said, “I was running with two friends and I would have been happy of either of them.”

Juniors Aiden Comer and Aubrie McRoberts were voted as the prince and princess.

“I was happy and relieved that I had won,” Comer said, “I knew that I had a chance, but I honestly thought that Josh would win.”

As royalty candidates, these students were expected to play the candidate game, hosted by the junior class, at the assembly, held on Feb. 8 during school. The candidate game was inspired by the classic children’s game: Hungry Hungry Hippos.

“I heard the idea from Reagan Shelby and I thought that it was a great idea that would be fun to do,” junior class president Becky Petesch said.

Unfortunately, during the playing of the game, an error was brought to light when participants noticed that a mistake had been made with the size of the laundry baskets that were being used to “eat” dodgeballs, and the game was replayed.

“We decided to replay the game after it was brought to our attention that one basket was way bigger than the others and we wanted to make it fair to everyone,” Petesch said. “Surprisingly, after Courtwarming, I heard no one complain about the game or the fact we had to replay it, which made me happy since I felt bad that we hadn’t caught the problem before we played the game the first time.”

“I do not like playing games,” Simpson said, “The second I found out that I had to play a game I almost put my foot down and tried to find a way to take my name off of the list.”

“I didn’t care about the extra votes for the game,” Bunch said, “I’m just competitive and like to win. I’m just glad that I didn’t hurt Logan on that scooter before his big game!”

After the boys’ basketball game was finished, students gathered in the high school cafeteria to dance and hang out with friends.

“I think that this year’s dance was a little bit better than last year’s; the music was better and the atmosphere just felt a little friendlier,” sophomore Sierra Keyte said. “In my opinion, the best part of the dance was when they played ‘Let the Bodies Hit the Floor,’ me and my friends just lost it.”